Patience Pays

Dudley Says The Big Picture, Not A Quick Fix, Is Key To Building A Contender.

September 7, 2003|By Michael Russo Staff Writer

"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg -- not by smashing it." -- American humorist and essayist Arnold Glasow.

Patience, patience everyone. Rick Dudley just asks for a little more patience, and he's confident you'll like what you see at the end of the day. And that day, he believes, is not too far off.

Dudley, entering his second season as the Panthers' general manager, is aware that patience is waning among longtime fans who have watched the team miss the playoffs five times in the past six years.

But he has a philosophy on how to build a longstanding, elite team, and that's not to go around with an open wallet signing overpriced, over-hyped free agents for a quick fix.

His belief is that contenders are built by amassing enough young, talented players who can develop together. Then, when that team is ready to take the final step, big names are added.

It's the same unwavering blueprint teams like Colorado, New Jersey and Ottawa have used to become consistent contenders. It's the same plan he implemented in talent-rich Tampa Bay and it's the same plan he's put into place here, one that he believes has the Panthers on their way to becoming an elite team and perennial contender.

"We have a lot of talent," Dudley said. "We are very deep at a multitude of positions. We're going to be an exceptional defense, tremendous up the middle. Right now, do you worry about it a little bit because some of the key components are young?

"Yeah, of course you do. But one thing I've learned -- something I didn't used to have -- is patience, but I do now because being impatient almost never works out."

"An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains." -- Dutch proverb.

When owner Alan Cohen hired Dudley in May 2002, he presented Cohen with a plan "to build a team designed at an elite level for a long period of time."

The plan consisted of five phases. Phase 1 began a year ago with the assessment of existing talent. It continued into Phase 2, the elimination of undesirable parts. Phase 3 is the amassing of talent. Phase 4 is the mixing in or emerging of players who can help turn a bunch of individuals into a unified group. Phase 5 is the addition of players to lift the Panthers to a different level.

Dudley believes the Panthers are in Phase 4, although there are still players who won't be around when the Panthers do become an elite team.

"We are building to something special," Dudley said. "I know [fans and media] have heard this before, but was it really real? I can't reflect back on before I got here, but I can reflect back on Olli Jokinen is already there. Viktor Kozlov is already there. Jay Bouwmeester, for a first-year player, is pretty close to already there.

"You look down the list and see people like Kristian Huselius, who's a pretty good player already. So it's not as quantum of a leap as people think to expect us to improve a great deal.

"I look at our top two lines and we are capable of having two very competitive top two lines in the league. I think we can put together third and fourth lines now with the additions of people like [Eric] Messier and [Mikael] Samuelsson.

"Are we at a level of a Colorado right now? Clearly not. Are we building toward that? Clearly yes. We've solidified certain positions like our blue line. Bouwmeester, [Branislav] Mezei, [Andreas] Lilja, probably [Mathieu] Biron, [Lukas] Krajicek, those guys are going to be here a long, long time. So is [Vaclav] Nedorost, so is [Stephen] Weiss up front. We're amassing other young assets like [Nathan] Horton, [Anthony] Stewart and [Petr] Taticek.

"We have a franchise goalie in [Roberto] Luongo. There is no doubt what we're building toward here."

But because most of these players range from their late teens to early 20s, Dudley says fans must be patient. While he has added veterans like Messier, Todd Gill and Jonas Hoglund to help accelerate the growth process, Dudley says it's not the time to add expensive free agents.

"If you acquire a $3 million or $4 million hockey player, you'd better be damned sure he's going to contribute and bring you to a different level," Dudley said. "There's no point to bring in a guy who takes up the space of a Lukas Krajicek and he brings you two points closer to the playoffs. That's not good enough because Lukas Krajicek will be retarded by that. So will a couple of other people because he may play a lot more minutes than a Mezei or a Biron."

"If you think about teams that have become really good teams, they were already good before they started going out to get free agent after free agent. Also, look at last year's free-agent crop. You'd find a lot of people that at the start of the season everybody was wowing. They weren't at the end of the year and it cost some people."